Alberta's housing conditions have softened since prices peaked in 2007, with declining prices restoring some of the affordability lost during the boom, according to the latest housing report released today by RBC Economics.

The RBC Affordability measure for Alberta, which captures the proportion of pre-tax household income needed to service the costs of owning a home, improved across all home segments with the benchmark detached bungalow dropping to 43 per cent, the standard townhouse to 32.1 per cent, the standard condo to 28.2 per cent, and the standard two-storey home to 46.4 per cent.

 

The city says it is taking action against abandoned construction sites. It says it will now be billing costs back to developers for work the city is forced to complete.

There are several sites around Calgary that the city says it's keeping an eye on. One of those sites is at 5320 2 Street, S.W.

Ashley Norris' boyfriend lives across the street from the future site of the Manchester Station condos. Norris says she keeps a close eye on her two kids whenever they play outside because the abandoned site has left a 46mx40m hole that is up to three stories deep. "He wanted me and my kids to move in and have this big family but I won't raise my children next to that," says Norris.

TORONTO - Municipal property assessments issued this fall are "unrealistic" given the dramatic drop in the real-estate market, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty admitted Wednesday, but he made no move to spare homeowners across the province.

By contrast, British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell last month announced a freeze of property assessments at 2007 levels to help people cope with the turbulence in property values, putting off new valuations until late next year.

At a year-end news conference yesterday, Mr. McGuinty instead called on municipal governments to recognize that the assessments are out of date as they prepare local property tax bills next year.

If Canadian prices follow U.S. trends, certain cities will experience a major slide in house prices
Some experts are predicting a U.S. style housing crash here in Canada, saying that we're only a year or so behind them. So what would that mean for us?
We decided to take a look at how much the average U.S. housing prices rose in the last ten years, and discovered that prices in October 2008 were 54% higher than in October 1998.Since U.S. prices peaked in April 2007 and Canadian prices peaked roughly a year later, we've calculated what a 10-year, 54% increase would add up to here - 18 months past our peak. That would mean that most Canadian cities are headed for a fall in housing prices, especially those out west. The full statistics on average house prices are below:
U.S. Housing Prices Start date (Oct. 1998): US$184,300
Peak (April 2007): US$322,100
Current (Oct. 2008): US$283,400

Vancouver Start date: (Oct. 1999): $283,957
Peak (May 2008): $624,639
Current (Oct. 2008): $556,682
Predicted (Oct. 2009): $436,726 |

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The selloff in real estate has morphed beyond a correction of overheated individual markets into a broad national slump, with prices posting their worst decline in nearly 20 years in November.

In the face of a collapse in consumer confidence, the number of resale homes sold in Canada plummeted by 42 per cent year-to-year to 27,743, the lowest level since January, 2001.

Between May and November, the average price of an existing home in Canada fell by 11 per cent, matching the drop in 1990 that coincided with the onset of a painful recession. Housing prices would go on to fall by about 20 per cent and it would be another decade before they managed to make new highs.